Introduction

Ethics and equity and the principles of justice do not changewith the calendar.

There is currently a large national focus on closing schoolachievement gaps, but practical information for school leaders to

actually use in their efforts to close these gaps is in short supply. Thatis the purpose of this book-to provide such practical informationin the form of an expanded discussion of equity audits, a schoolleadership tool presented previously as a single chapter in Leadershipfor Equity and Excellence: Creating High-Achievement Classrooms,Schools, and Districts, our 2003 Corwin book.

Equity audits are a systematic way for school leaders-principals,superintendents, curriculum directors, teacher leaders-to assess thedegree of equity or inequity present in three key areas of their schoolsor districts: programs, teacher quality, and achievement. These equityaudits are designed to put streamlined, practical strategies in the handsof leadership practitioners at a time when such tools are sorely needed.

In keeping with our goal of providing a useful book, we think read-ers will find it useful if we make clear right at the beginning of thisbook what we mean by the word equity. Understanding how we use theterm is central to understanding our discussion of equity audits in therest of the book. By equity, we mean explicitly educational equity, anexcellent definition of which is found on the Wisconsin Department ofPublic Instruction's Web site:

Education equity: the educational policies, practices andprograms necessary to (a) eliminate educational barriers based on

gender, race/ethnicity, national origin, color, disability, age, orother protected group status; and (b) provide equal educationalopportunities and ensure that historically underserved orunderrepresented populations meet the same rigorous standardsfor academic performance expected of all children and youth.Educational equity knowledge and practices in public schoolshave evolved over time and require a comprehensive approach.Equity strategies are planned, systemic, and focus on the core ofthe teaching and learning process (curriculum, instruction, andschool environment/culture). Educational equity activities promotethe real possibility of equality of educational results for each studentand between diverse groups of students.

This definition of education equity highlights the complexity ofthe conditions required to achieve it and also emphasizes that itsrealization is dependent on addressing inequities in access, programs,and results-themes that we highlight consistently in the chaptersahead.

We also wish to emphasize here that our discussion of educationalequity in general and equity audits specifically is intended primarilyfor educational leaders at the campus and district levels. That isbecause educational leaders are on the front lines in the ongoing battleto achieve education equity in US. public schools.

Though substantial educational achievement gaps have existedthroughout the history of US. schooling, the national focus on closingthem has never been more intense. The No Child Left Behind Act of2001 (NCLB) was signed into law on January 8, 2002, and could bedescribed as the most sweeping reform of US. federal education policysince the 1960s. Although changes and modifications have been madeto the law, and others likely will continue in the future, at its centerremains a potentially revolutionary idea-an explicit statement by thefederal government that achievement gaps between white and middle-and upper-income children, on one hand, and children of color and chil-dren from low-income homes, on the other, are unacceptable and mustbe eliminated.

This is an important policy statement from the national government;however, its success in achieving the aim of closing achievement gapsultimately will depend on the law's implementation by hundreds of thou-sands of educators around the country. This is where school leaders playan extremely important role. They act as policy mediators or street-level

II

L._•

bureaucrats (Lipsky, 1980; Rorrer & Skrla, 2005), in filtering and shap-ing the ways policies (such as NCLB) are implemented in local schools.In other words, school leaders such as principals can block the policies,ignore them, use them in negative ways, or use them in positive ways. Wewant to maximize leaders' ability to use accountability policy (includingNCLB) that is intended to elimin!l,teachievement gaps in the most posi-tive and productive ways possible.

For such positive use of accountability policy to actually happen,however, school leaders need to be assisted in understanding how theforce of these polices can be applied to help them achieve the goals theyhave for their schools, including reducing and eventually eliminatingachievement gaps. One of the prime ways accountability at the national,state, and local levels can be of concrete assistance to school leaders isutilizing the data these systems provide to assess the current state of theschool or district and to track progress.

Although many state accountability systems, and increasingly thefederal system, have been producing this type of data for the past fifteenor twenty years, the simple existence of the data does not automaticallylead to school improvement or to diminished achievement gaps. Thedata must be analyzed, and school decision making must be linked to thedata. This sounds like a straightforward process, but it is considerablymore complicated in actual practice, particularly when the data showwide gaps in achievement between and among student groups based onrace, ethnicity, family income, and language proficiency.

We have found in our work over the past two decades as researchersand as teachers who work with aspiring and practicing school adminis-trators that people in schools overwhelmingly do not have a clear, accu-rate, or useful understanding of the degree of inequity present in theirown schools and school districts. Furthermore, in typical school settings,teachers and administrators frequently avoid the topic of race completelyas a possible factor in discussions about achievement gaps (Pollock,2001). In addition, it is also common that when questioned about whychildren of color and children from low-income homes do not do well inschool, educators almost always give reasons external to schools as thecause, such as the children's parents, their neighborhoods, and even theirgenetics (Haycock, 200 I).

Thus, educators, school leaders in particular, need assistance inlearning to recognize that there are large and persistent patterns ofinequity internal to schools-patterns that are embedded in the manyassumptions, beliefs, practices, procedures, and policies of schools

6 • Background and Context for Equity Audits

.themselves. In fact, as one of our reviewers pointed out, such patternsof inequity not only result in differential experiences for students whodiffer along race, social class, gender, and disability lines, the systemicinequity present in schools may actually create differences amongstudents (see also McDermott, 1997). Therefore, in response to thisneed for assistance in identifying and addressing internal patterns ofinequity, equity audits are intended to provide such assistance in a veryconcrete way. In other words, these audits are designed to provideinsight into, discussion of, and practical responses to systemic patternsof inequity in schools and school districts. Our discussion of equityaudits continues in more depth and detail in the next eleven chapters.

The chapters in this book are roughly divided into three parts. The firstpart of the book (Chapters 1-3) contains more theoretical content; thesechapters layout the background and historical context for our version ofequity audits. Part II (Chapters 4-7) describes the equity audit processfor schools and districts. In Chapters 8 through 12 (Part III), weconcentrate on attitudes, beliefs, strategies, and examples that areintended to help leaders address inequities uncovered by equity auditsin their schools and districts. A brief preview of the content of eachindividual chapter follows.

Chapter 2. The Case for Systemic Equity

In this chapter, we include a discussion of historic inequities inu.s. public schools, offer a brief history of successive "waves" ofschool reform, and make the case for the need for systemic equity.That is, we argue that achievement equity is not possible withoutequity in other parts of the system, specifically teacher-quality equityand equity in the instructional programs to which children have access.

Chapter 3. History and Overview of Equity Audits

Here we trace the three streams of earlier research on which ourversion of equity audits builds-eivil rights, curriculum managementaudits, and state accountability systems. We also suggest a simpleprocess for conducting equity audits and provide the overall modelthat will be expanded upon in Chapters 4, 5, and 6.

Chapter 4. Teacher Quality Equity

This chapter explains and provides examples for the four indica-tors of teacher quality equity: (a) teacher education (bachelor's,master's, and doctoral degrees; number or percentage holding a par-ticular degree), (b) teacher experience (number of years as a teacher),(c) teacher mobility (number or percentage of teachers leaving or notleaving a campus on an annual basis), and (d) teachers without certi-fication or assigned outside of their area of teaching expertise (e.g.,language arts teachers teaching a math course).

Chapter 5. Programmatic Equity

This chapter provides explanation and examples for the secondcomponent of the equity audit, programmatic equity, which includesfour indicators that research has consistently shown to be significantsites of inequity. These four include the following: (a) special educa-tion, (b) gifted and talented education (G/T), (c) bilingual education,and (d) student discipline.

Chapter 6. Achievement Equity

Here we provide explanation and examples for the third audit area,achievement equity, including the four indicators: (a) state achieve-ment test results, (b) dropout rates, (c) high,school graduation tracks,and (d) SAT/ACT/APIIBresults.

Chapter 7. Equity Audits for School Districts

This chapter extends the equity audit model to the school districtlevel and provides an extended illustration of how one district opera-tionalized district-level equity auditing.

Chapter 8. Strategies: Becomingan Equity-Oriented Change Agent

This chapter focuses on leaders acquiring and maintaining theequity attitude required to implement equity audits. The leadership toimplement the equity audit requires a change agent, and being a suc-cessful change agent requires skills and assumptions for working withothers. Chapter 8 discusses these skills and assumptions, many of

· which we have learned from or have had reinforced by our own effortsto be change agents.

Chapter 9. Strategies: IncreasingEquity Consciousness Among Teachers

In this chapter and Chapter 10, we discuss two aspects of improvingteaching: equity consciousness and well-developed teaching skills.Chapter 9 focuses specifically on equity consciousness. First, we definethe four central beliefs on which an equity consciousness is built. Next,we describe the four levels of a developing equity consciousness.Finally, we offer strategies instructional leaders can use to help them-selves and teachers further develop their equity consciousness.

Chapter 10. Strategies: DevelopingHigh-Quality Teaching Skills

This chapter focuses on the second aspect of teacher quality: well-developed teaching skills. In this chapter, we offer nine teaching skillsthat high quality teachers employ. Included with each skill is an evidencestatement to assist one in knowing what this skill would look like in prac-tice. We conclude Chapter 10with strategies for helping teachers develophigh quality teaching skills.

Chapter 11. Strategies: AvoidingEquity Traps and Developing Equity Skills

In this chapter, we define and give examples of the traps that pre-vent schools from being successful with all students, what we call"equity traps." Additionally, we describe and offer examples of amatching set of "equity skills" that prevent one from falling into thesetraps or allow one to be released from these traps. In this chapter, wealso provide strategies to assist leaders in helping themselves, andthose who work alongside them in, .schools, to develop' their equityskills.

Chapter 12. Conclusion

Here we provide a review and summary of the main conceptsoutlined in the book.

Our overall goal for this book is to describe and discuss equity auditswith an emphasis on detail and practicality that was not possible in ourearlier discussions of this topic due to space limitations. We see equityaudits as an important tool for educational leaders' toolboxes-onethat has the potential to be extremely useful in the current highlypressurized accountability climate in U.S. public education.

IncreasingEquityConsciousness

At the risk of sounding ridiculous, let me say that the truerevolutionary is guided by feelings of love.

-Ernesto (Che) Guevara

In the previous chapter, we discussed the importance andcharacteristics of being an equity-oriented change agent. The change

to which we are referring begins with a school in which some studentsor student groups may be learning at high levels, but where not allstudents or student groups are learning at these levels. In other words,there are inequities in student performance, and these inequities arerepresented by the "achievement gap." Since there is an achievementgap among student groups in nearly all schools, all districts, all states,and thus, a nationwide gap in achievement, we can surmise that whatwe have been doing in the past and what we are currently doing inschools is not working or at least not working in most schools,districts, and states. So then, change is needed if we indeed areworking to create schools that are excellent and equitable. But whatexactly are we trying to change and where do we get started?

Changing schools is complex, and as fervently as we seek to do it,we have yet to fmd the "silver bullet" of reform that works in all schools,and we probably never will. One thing that research consistently hasfound, however, is that teacher quality matters. Although there is debate

as to what constitutes teacher quality (e.g., Darling-Hammond, 2000,2001; McCaffrey, Lockwood, Koretz, & Hamilton, 2003) and what therelationship is between teacher quality and student achievement (e.g.,Heck, 2007), we know students achieve more in some teachers' class-rooms than in others (Rivkin, Hanushek, & Kain, 2001; Rowan,Correnti, & Miller, 2002), and presumably, a significant factor is thesestudents' success is the quality of the teaching. Thus, returning to ourquestion as to where the equity-oriented change agent should begin, wecontend the starting point should be improving teacher quality.

The two aspects ofteacher quality we describe in this chapter and thenext are teacher-equity consciousness and teacher instructional skills. Ifindeed in every classroom in a school there was a teacher with a well-developed equity consciousness and well-developed teaching skills, webelieve the achievement gap in that school would be eliminated. Goingfurther, if in every school in a system there were teachers in every class-room with well-developed equity consciousness and well-developedteaching skills, the gap would be eliminated within that school system.So, you get the picture: if in every classroom, if in every school, if inevery system there was high quality teaching by an equity-consciousteacher, the nationwide achievement gap would be eliminated.

Having been school teachers and administrators, we do understandthat this is not as easily accomplished as it is stated here. But it can bedone. Indeed, from our own work studying high performing schooldistricts, there are examples of districts in which it has been done(Skrla & Scheurich, 2001; Skrla, Scheurich, & Johnson, 2000). Hope-fully, this chapter, as well as the others devoted to "strategies" fortransforming schools into ones that are equitable and excellent, willgive you some tools on which to draw. We will begin in this chapterwith a discussion of equity consciousness, follow in Chapter 10 witha consideration of equity-oriented teaching skills, and conclude thisstrategies section in Chapter 11 with suggestions for avoiding equitytraps and developing equity skills.

By equity consciousness we mean that teachers are aware of, accept,and act on four central beliefs:

1. That all children (except only a very small percentage, e.g.,those with profound disabilities) are capable of high levels ofacademic success.

2. That all children means all, regardless of a child's race, socialclass, gender, sexual orientation, learning differences, culture,language, religion, and so on.

3. That the adults in schools are primarily responsible for studentlearning.

4. That traditional school practices may work for some studentsbut are not working for all children. Therefore, if we are goingto eliminate the achievement gap, it requires a change in ourpractices.

In the past, researchers, professors, and leadership practitionershave described teachers as either having an equity consciousness (asdefined above) or not having an equity consciousness. That is, ateacher either "got it" or "didn't get it." However, teachers' attitudesand beliefs are much more complex than either having or not havingan equity consciousness. It is not an all or nothing situation, and it isusually not a conscious decision to think or believe a certain way. It isjust not that simple. Teachers, like all people, are complex.

For example, some teachers may have almost no equity consciousnessfor a variety of reasons. Some, perhaps, have never been exposed tothe concept, having never even considered that what they do in theirclassrooms could be producing inequities. Others may uncriticallyaccept their own deficit thinking (Valencia, 1997). That is, teachersmay blame parents for students' lack of learning-"These parents justdon't value education." They may assume low-income status means alimited ability to leam-"These children just don't come to schoolwith any experiences." They may attribute a lack of student success tofactors external to themselves and the school-"It's not us; it's thesechildren and their families" (McKenzie, 2001). Still other teachersmay hold deeply rooted (but most often unspoken) prejudicial viewstoward the students they teach, including a belief in the geneticinferiority of some student groups (Chellman, Weinstein, Stiefel, &Schwartz, 2005; Lyman & Villani, 2004).A second group of teachers may have a limited equity conscious-

ness. These teachers may have some understanding of equity issues forone specific group of students but may fail to make connections toother groups experiencing similar discrimination. For example, a

teacher may teach special education classes and have a strong aware-ness of how students with learning differences experience marginal-ization in schools, but this teacher may not see that the same systemicmarginalization happens to students of color, to English languagelearners, to students from low-income families, and to other groups.

A third possible group may be teachers who appear to have devel-oped an equity consciousness, who can even articulate it but whosebehavior does not match what they say they believe. We call thisan inauthentic equity consciousness. Often, these teachers see them-selves as having altruistic motives-working in low-income schools toserve as role models or to "save" the children (McKenzie, 200 I).Unfortunately, this type of inauthentic equity consciousness may havemore to do with the teacher's own esteem needs than it does with actu-ally serving all students well.

Still another possibility in the range of teachers' equity conscious-ness is the group that seems to have an equity consciousness andshows indications of deeply understanding it but tends to slip back intoone of the groups already discussed herein, especially when frustratedor under stress. This, then, is a vacillating equity consciousness.Sometimes this vacillation comes when teachers present the only orminority voice in support of students, their families, and communityand face the silencing and norming efforts of others who seem unwill-ing to let go of their own deficit views and attempt to impose theseviews on everyone else (McKenzie & Scheurich, 2004).

The final category of equity consciousness is the group of teach-ers who have it, understand it, and live it out on a daily basis. This wecall an authentic equity consciousness. Teachers, when asked how theydeveloped this consciousness, cite their difficult childhood circum-stances, connections between their equity beliefs and their religiousfaith or spirituality (Dantley, 2003), the influence of a mentor orteacher who had a well-developed equity consciousness, or a criticalincident that changed forever their views of those unlike themselves.

Consequently, since teachers are on a continuum in regard to theirequity consciousness-with some having little equity consciousness,some having well-developed equity consciousness, and others fallingsomewhere in between-an equity-oriented change agent needs tounderstand that to help all teachers improve requires different instruc-tionalleadership approaches for different teachers. Principals, tradition-ally, even when they understand the importance of cultivating an equity

consciousness among their faculty, have provided only one type ofprofessional development for everyone. For example, the entire facultymay participate in a book study about successful teachers of diversestudents. Most likely though, all the teachers on a faculty will not bene-fit equally or will not benefit at all from such an activity. This is becausedifferent teachers are at different levels in their equity-consciousnessdevelopment, and a meaningful professional development activity forsome teachers will, therefore, not be a meaningful professional activityfor other teachers. Principals, thus, should provide differentiated profes-sional development for individual teachers or small groups of teacherswith similar equity consciousness needs, just as teachers in classroomsshould provide differentiated instruction for individual students or smallgroups of students with similar needs. To assist principals in this task, weprovide the following research-based strategies that can be employed ina customized and individualized way to help teachers grow and developtheir equity consciousness (Goddard, Hoy, & Woolfolk, 2000; Mezirow,2000; Taylor, Marienau, & Fiddler, 2000).

INSTRUCTIONAL lEADERSHIP STRATEGIES TODEVELOP TEACHERS' EQUITY CONSCIOUSNESS

1. Use equity-focused professional development materials such asthe following:

• Guided book studies• Films• Interactive media• Commercial curricula

2. Promote reflection of and learning from critical incidentsthrough the use of the following:

• Journals• Accountability data analysis• Videotaped lessons• Peer observations• Critical friends groups

3. Use social persuasion consisting of the following:

• Constant repetition of the equity message• Guest speakers who reinforce the message

• Reframing deficit comments regarding students, theirfamilies, and community into acknowledgments of assets

4. Prescribe actions and behaviors to increase understanding ofstudents' cultures and homes:

• Positive phone calls to students' homes• Home visits• Neighborhood walks

5. Model respectful and culturally responsive interactions:

• Caring principal-teacher relationships• Principal modeling respect and cultural responsiveness• Skilled mentor-teacher modeling respect and culturalresponsiveness

6. Directly address negative attitudes and low expectations:

• Deficit thinking• Inconsistent logic about students' potential based on faultyassumptions

• Stereotypes• Blaming the students, their families, or culture for thestudents' lack of success

7. Incrementally raise expectations for students and teachers aspositive change occurs.

Hopefully, this list offers equity-oriented change agents a toolkit forbeginning or continuing their work in helping teachers and them-selves develop equity consciousness. Needless to say, however, equityconsciousness, though essential, will not be sufficient to transform aschool into one that serves all students well. To ensure the success ofall students, the leadership must also take into consideration teachingskills, a discussion to which we turn in the following chapter.

1. If you were to construct a map of where all the staff membersin your building were with respect to your estimation of their

current state of equity consciousness, what would it look like?Where would you be on the map?

2. Who is the person in your building who would be the firstperson you would turn to in seeking an ally to assist in the workof making a plan to systematically raise equity consciousness inyour school or school district?

3. Which of the instructional leadership strategies we listed thatcan help promote increased equity consciousness do youalready use? How can these be more carefully and coherentlytargeted on your campus to promote higher levels of equityconsciousness?

DevelopingHigh-QualityTeachingSkills

Teachers will not come to the school knowing all they haveto know, but knowing how to figure out what they need toknow, where to get it, and how to help others make meaningout of it.

In the previous chapter, we discussed one of the two essentialcharacteristics a high-quality teacher possesses: equity consciousness.

Moreover, we offered strategies an equity-oriented leader can employ toassist teachers in developing equity consciousness. In this chapter, weturn to the next essential characteristic of a high-quality teacher: well-developed teaching skills. First, we will describe these skills and thenagain offer practical strategies for leaders to use in helping teachersdevelop or refine their teaching skills.

Although there is a range of opinion regarding the characteristicsand teaching skills of high-quality teachers (Berliner, 2001), there are

a set of generally agreed upon teaching skills that high-quality teach-ers employ (e.g., Resnick & Hall, 200 I; Saphier, Haley-Speca, &Gower, 2008). It is also assumed, based of the commonalities ofteacher-performance assessments among the various states, that theemploYment of these skills can be observed and evaluated. However,if one is an equity-oriented leader, one must not only be concernedabout ensuring that every teacher has these skills but also that everyteacher has these skills and uses them every day to ensure the successof every child.

To help in this effort, we offer here, as well as in previous work,"Preparing Instructional Leaders for Social Justice" (McKenzie, Skrla,& Scheurich, 2006), the following generally accepted teaching skillsnecessary for high-quality teaching. Accompanying each teaching skillis an evidence statement to help leaders know what to look for whenassessing the level of each teaching skill. Following this is a sampleprofessional development strategy, Teaching and Learning Tours, thatleaders can use in helping teachers develop these teaching skills.

HIGH-QUALITY TEACHING SKillSAND EVIDENCE TO ASSESS THEM

Skill 1. Using Consistent and ReliableClassroom Procedures and Routines

Evidence: Students know "how things work here." There is no con-fusion as to what is to be done, how it is to be done, when it is to done,and so on. Students know the expectations for formatting assignments;they know how to get the teacher's attention; they know when and whereto obtain needed materials, supplies, and so forth (Wong & Wong,2004). Moreover, the routines and procedures are equitably applied. Forexample, if the teacher establishes the expectation that students are toraise their hands to respond to a question or to get the teacher's attention,all students will be required to do so. In other words, teachers won't holdsome students to one standard, that of waiting to be called on prior tospeaking, while allowing other students to call out.

Skill 2. Clearly Communicating Expectations for Learning

Evidence: This is similar to consistently using routines and proce- .dures but refers particularly to the learning task. Evidence for this skill

can be garnered by asking students what, specifically, they are work-ing on in regard to the assigned task, what they should know or be ableto do once they have completed the assignment, why they need toknow this information or be able to do or have this particular skill, andhow they will judge whether they have done a good job on this assign-ment (Resnick & Hall, 2001). Typically, some students can answer allthese questions. Equity, however, is achieved when all students cananswer all these questions.

Skill 3. Stimulating Students WithHigh-Level and Complex Tasks

Evidence: In looking for evidence for this skill, one must be ableto discriminate between stimulated and stymied. Stimulated wouldmean that although students may be experiencing cognitive dissonance(Festinger, 1957), they are progressing toward success. Students wouldexperience enough success to stay motivated to continue to engage inthe learning task. Stymied, however, would mean that students are expe-riencing enough cognitive dissonance or maybe even confusion that theyare frustrated to a level where they cannot imagine success and thus willabandon the task. The best way we know to discern whether a student isstimulated or stymied is to look at the progress the student is makingtoward the end result and to talk to the student regarding her or his expe-rience of the learning. Equity regarding this third skill would require theteacher to know how each student learns, to know how much progresseach student is making toward the end result, to recognize when astudent is stimulated and when a student is stymied, and to know how tomove each and all students to success (e.g., Bell, 2003).

Skill 4. Ensuring Students Are Actively, Cognitively Engaged

Evidence: Students are actively, cognitively engaged if they arethinking, in other words cogitating, about the learning objective. Thismay sound simplistic, but it is not. We can often be fooled about thelevel of active cognitive engagement in our classes. For example, wemay believe that a student who is looking at the teacher, exhibitingcompliant behavior, and possibly nodding is considering the learningobjective, making connections, in other words, learning. However, wecan give testament from our own experiences when we were studentsthat this may not be the case. Students can appear to be learning when

indeed they are thinking of many things other than the learning objec-tive. Therefore, for this skill, teachers need to structure learning so thatthey monitor students' active cognitive engagement.

For example, in a first-grade classroom, if the learning objective isthat students will add single digit numbers, the teacher could provideeach student with a small dry erase board. Then, the teacher would askthe students to individually work the problem on their erase boards.Once all students have answered the problem, the teacher would havethe students hold up their boards and show their answers to the teacher.Hopefully, this would be done in small groups and differentiated to theneeds of the particular students within this group (Tomlinson, 1999;Tomlinson et aI., 2003). Using the dry erase boards, the teacher wouldknow exactly which students understood the concept of single digitaddition and which did not. This would allow the teacher to make deci-sions about the next step in the learning process. For example, theteaching might discover that three of the students in the class are con-tinually answering the problems incorrectly. These students would needmore guidance, what Hunter (1994) calls "guided practice."

Providing this immediate guidance that is more guided practicebased on the assessed needs of each student allows the teacher to attendto any fissure, any little crack, before it becomes a gap. However, whatusually occurs is a teacher will ask a group of students a question andthen call on one student to answer. This pattern is continued until theteacher is convinced she or he has taught the objective. However, oftentimes there are students who do not understand and whose lack ofunderstanding goes unnoticed.

Catching a misunderstanding or a lack of understanding early canprevent a gap and ensure equity (e.g., Yair, 2000).

Skill 5. Extending Student Learning ThroughTeacher-to-Student and Student-to-Student Discussion

Evidence: Many of us are interactive learners. We don't know whatwe think about something until we hear ourselves discuss or explain it.In schools, providing opportunities for students to talk aloud to some-one can help them understand their thinking. However, it is throughasking probing questions in an effort not only to clarify thinking butalso to extend thinking that learning goes to a deeper level. Whereasteachers have been trained to use questioning strategies to extend

learning, students also need to be explicitly taught to ask questionsthat extend their learning and the learning of others (e.g., Williamson,Bondy, Langley, & Mayne, 2005). In teaching both teachers andstudents to ask probing questions and extend learning, we have class-rooms full of several teachers rather than merely one. Therefore,equity can be achieved when each student becomes a questionanswerer and a question poser.

Skill 6. Frequently Assessing Individual Student Learning

Evidence: At the end of each learning segment, lesson, or unit, theteacher uses an assessment, which is most often teacher made, thatprovides data the teacher can use to determine which students have orhave not mastered the objective being taught. Thus, the teacher candetermine which students need more instructional guidance. Theseassessments can be "quick checks," as one school in which we worktitles them. Returning to our elementary school example, a quickcheck for addition might involve students working three or four addi-tion problems on a dry erase board and then showing these to theteacher. The teacher would be able to quickly assess who needs moreguided practice in addition. A quick check in high school mightinclude using exit notes. During the last few minutes of class, theteacher can have students write a three or four sentence explanation ofwhat they learned that day related to the lesson objective.

Of course, for these notes to be useful and to promote equity, theteacher would need to read the exit notes that day and then makeinstructional decisions based on the data revealed through the use ofthese exit notes. Thus, the teacher might discover that the majority ofthe students did not take away from the lesson what the teacherintended. The instructional decision, then, might be to change the waythe lesson was taught and reteach it to the entire class. The data mightreveal that most of the students learned what was intended, but therewere a few students that needed to be retaught or needed more guidedpractice. Equity, however, is only achieved if the teacher uses the datafrom the quick check to make instructional decisions that are carriedout as soon as possible. Waiting several days or a week to reteach orprovide more guided practice can create a gap in some students' learn-ing. Moreover, a small gap in first grade can become the GrandCanyon by high school.

Skill 7. Differentiating Instruction to Meet IndividualStudent Needs and Capitalize on Individual Assets

Evidence: Teachers are using the data from assessments, includingquick checks, to make instructional decisions regarding the way theyneed to differentiate instruction to build on students' assets and ensurethat all students are learning at high levels. Differentiation is often dis-cussed as meeting the needs of the gifted and talented or high achievingstudent or meeting the needs of the student who is below grade level ordeemed to need remediation. This results in gifted and talented oradvanced placement classes on the one end and foundational classes ortutorials on the other end. Our emphasis here, though, is on differentiat-ing within the school day and within the regular class.

To build on each student's assets, teachers should, as we've alreadydescribed, assess students often. They should know at the end of eachclass period or each learning segment which students know and do notknow what was being taught and then make instructional decisions atthat juncture. Often, though, teachers teach a lesson, sample a fewstudents to see if they understood what was taught, assume all studentsunderstood, and then move too quickly for some students into inde-pendent practice. Some students just need more guidance. Therefore,to ensure that all students understood what was taught and that allstudents were ready to move into practicing their new skill, the teachermust assess each student's knowledge prior to moving into indepen-dent practice. If the teacher discovers that some students indeed needmore guided practice, this guidance needs to occur right away. If theteacher waits until the end of a teaching unit or the end of the weekto assess whether students understood a skill or concept and then toprovide more guided practice, it is too late for several reasons.

Let's take a simple elementary math concept as an example,although the need for guided practice is just as important in secondaryeducation as it is in elementary. If a second-grade student was learningabout regrouping in math, first the student would need to understandthe concept of place value. A student cannot understand that 10 onescan be put together to make one 10 if the student does not know thereare concepts like "ones" and "tens." Thus, if a teacher assumes studentsunderstand place value and then moves along into regrouping, thosestudents who do not know place value will be lost. If the teacher, then,does not assess throughout the lessons on regrouping and waits untilthe end of the unit or the end of the week to assess, a gap in learningis created. However, if a teacher assesses at the end of each learning

segment, the teacher will know which students understand the conceptsbeing taught and which do not.

It is at that time, and not later, that the teacher needs to differenti-ate the instruction and provide these students with more guidedpractice-guidance being provided by the teacher who has the skill tomove a student to the next level of learning. Typically, skill introduc-tion is not the time to rely on peer teaching. Furthermore, when assess-ment occurs too long after the initial teaching, student confusion orlack of understanding will not be discovered early enough. This lackof initial learning will prevent the student from learning all the otherconcepts that depend on this initial skill or concept-a gap occurs.Then, once this gap has begun, the teacher has to try to carve out timein the day or after school to reteach the student. However, if the studenthad received timely guided instruction, this gap can be prevented.Moreover, if a teacher assesses prior to a lesson being taught and dis-covers which students have or do not have the requisite skills neededto learn the new concept, the teacher can "preteach" the new conceptin a guided small group.

This preteach would focus not only on the needed requisite skillbut also introduce the new skill as well. This way, when the teacherintroduces the new skill or concept to the entire class, the students whohave been pretaught would not be behind; in fact, they will be ahead.This should increase students' confidence in their ability to learn thenew concept because they already have been introduced to it. Equityin this skill, then, is providing more guidance for those students whoneed it at the time they need it, thus, preventing a gap from starting(e.g., Gregory, 2003).

Skill 8. Using an Asset Model toRespond to Students' Varying Cultures

Evidence: A teacher using an asset model in response to the vary-ing cultures of students is "cross-culturally competent, skilled in effec-tively promoting the social development of culturally diverse learners,and is using the leamer's culture as a vehicle for cognitive and sociallearnings" (Cartledge, Tillman, & Talbert-Johnson, 2001, p. 34). Thus,equity is demonstrated through this skill because the teacher sees allstudents as competent learners who bring assets from their cultureto the learning environment. Asset thinking, unlike deficit thinking(Valencia, 1997) presumes competence. Using asset thinking, ateacher believes students can and will learn, thereby reinforcing in

students their beliefs that they are capable learners (e.g., Gay, 2000;Gonzalez & Huerta-Macias, 1997; Ladson-Billings, 1995, 1997). Inother words, no student is outside the teacher's zone of self-efficacy(McKenzie & Lozano, 2008).

Skill 9. Demonstrating Respect and Care in AllInteractions With All Students and Students' Families

Evidence: Teachers who respect students and students' familiesdemonstrate this respect daily in their words, their tone of voice, andtheir giving of time and positive attention. Literally, respect is demon-strated in everything a teacher does or does not do, in everything ateacher does or does not put value on. Teachers who respect studentsand their students' families understand that the ways in which theteacher sees the world may not be the only way in which the worldcan be seen. This difference in worldview is respected rather thandenounced. It is seen as an asset not a deficit. The teacher who trulyrespects students and their families opens himself or herself up tolearning from and with students and their families. This is a differencein attitude from molding students and their families to fit into theteacher's ways of seeing and doing to working alongside students andtheir families to use the assets each student brings to the classroom toenhance the collective classroom learning.

A STRATEGY FOR DEVELOPINGHIGH-QUALITY TEACHING SKillS:TEACHING AND lEARNING TOURS

There is an array of strategies to assist teachers in developing high-quality teaching skills. Here we focus on one strategy we have usedand found to be highly effective-teaching and learning tours.

Teaching and learning tours is a strategy that provides teachers anopportunity for reflecting on their practice. It is in-situ professional devel-opment that occurs within the workday and on the school site. We havelearned from adult-education theory that for professional learning to bemeaningful for adults, it must draw from and apply to their work experi-ences (Mezirow, 2000). Therefore, in keeping with adult-learning theory,this strategy uses the teachers' working context-their schools, specifi-cally addresses the current challenges students are having, and draws fromthe teachers' expertise to provide solutions to these challenges.

Thus, the purpose of teaching and learning tours is to provideteachers training focused on one of the previously discussed instruc-tional skill, for example-active cognitiveengagement.This is done bytaking a small group of teachers on a teaching and learning tour inwhich they go into a colleague's classroom to observe the skill in prac-tice. However, this is not about teachers evaluating other teacher'sclassroom practice. It is about using colleagues' classrooms as labora-tories for teachers to engage in their own reflective practice. In otherwords, creating a space where teachers can stand back and see theclassroom as a whole-observing the forest from outside tq.etrees.

• Reminder: This is not about the person being observed. It is aboutusing your colleague's classroom as a lab for you to engage inreflective practice, which is thinking about your practice.

• If this were your classroom, what would you be proud of? What ispositive in this classroom?

• What is the objective being taught? Based on this objective, what isthe percentage of children who are actively cognitively engaged?

• If this were your classroom, what could you do to "ratchet up" theactive cognitive engagement? What other things might you considerto make this lesson or classroom environment even better?

• What have you taken away from this that you will tryout in yourclassroom?

To clarify, we offer below the steps we use in conducting teachingand learning tours.

1. The first time teachers go on "a tour," an explanation is givenfor the purpose of the tour, emphasizing that this is a pro-fessional development activity for reflective practice notteacher evaluation.

2. Teachers meet for about fifteen minutes to review the focusskill and determine what the skill looks like in actual practice.

3. The teaching and learning tour protocol is reviewed (Box 10.1).

.f?,--------------------------------------------- ....•q~I~>

4. Teachers go into a classroom for five or ten minutes looking forevidence of the focus skill.

5. After five or ten minutes, teachers leave the classroom anddebrief in the hallway using the questions on the protocol.

6. After touring three or four classrooms, a debriefing of the entiretour is conducted.

7. A different set of teachers cycle through these tours during theday. Typically, twenty teachers can participate per day.

8. At the end of the day, a whole school debriefing is conducted, anda combined list of strategies is compiled to address the focusskill-in this example active cognitive engagement (Box 10.2contains a list recently generated by one school). It is important tonote here that the list is generated from the teachers, thereby usingtheir expertise, and is simple enough that teachers can employ thestrategies immediately with no need for elaborate planning orpreparation. We believe this is consistent with adult-learningtheory, focusing on the teachers' immediate challenges and usingtheir expertise to come up with solutions.

• Teacher-guided small groups instead of teacher moving fromindividual student to individual student

• Useof white boards for student responses• Use of timer to move students through transitions and guideindividual, small-group, and whole-class responses

• Assign cooperative jobs for small groups• Use instruction cards for centers• Utilize coteachers for gUiding groups• Individual student response cards (for example A, 8, (, D or yes/no oragree/disagree)

• Use butcher paper in corners of room and have students respond onthe paper

• Use butcher paper on the floor and have students respond on thepaper

• Usesponge activities when waiting to maximize learning time• Games that require individual response, then small group, then wholeclass

• Wait time• Think, pair, share• Flexible grouping by student need• Preteach• Useof timer or watch for teacher to check active cognitive engagement

The feedback from teachers we have worked with using these tourshas been positive. Teachers tell us that observing other teachers'classrooms allowed them to see the big picture. In addition, they saydebriefing with other teachers helped them to clarify their thinkingand provided them with strategies they could go back and try in theirclassroom immediately. Indeed, we've taken teachers on a tour in themorning and then visited their classrooms in the afternoon and seenteachers already using the strategies they and their colleagues came upwith earlier in the day.

Certainly, this strategy has been useful in assisting individualteachers in developing reflective practice, but it has also assistedschools in developing a community of reflective practitioners whoopenly share their classrooms with others, thus creating transparencyand who engage in professional conversations that move everyone'swork forward. We must offer a caution here, however; for this strat-egy to be effective, the tours must be lead by someone who has theinstructional expertise to initially guide the discussion. Having aprincipal or instructional supervisor attend the tours or guide thetours sends a powerful message as to the value of this type of tour,the value of teachers' time, the value of teachers' expertise in solv-ing problems, and the value of professional development and specif-ically, reflective practice. Moreover, for this strategy to bring aboutwhole-school reform, to create a schoolwide learning community,these tours will need to become "what we do here." That is, they needto be scheduled throughout the year and consistently done; in otherwords, they need to be protected from the micro-diversions that takeus away from being consistent with reform.

In the last two chapters we provided a discussion of the two essentialcharacteristics high-quality teachers possess-an equity consciousnessand well-developed teaching skills. In Chapter 9, we described equity

consciousness and offered practical strategies leaders can use to helpteachers and themselves further develop their equity consciousness. Inthis chapter, we provided a list of nine teaching skills a high-qualityteacher would need to possess and use to be effective with students.Moreover, we offered evidence of what these skills would look like inpractice, specifically practice that aims to ensure equity. In the nextchapter, we describe the possible traps to equity, defined as "EquityTraps" (McKenzie & Scheurich, 2004) and offer strategies that haveproven successful in avoiding these traps and thus improvingachievement and programmatic and teacher-quality equity.

1. We have provided a list of nine skills that high-quality teachershave and know how to use. Do you agree with all nine skills onour list? Which ones would you leave off? What other skills doyou think are essential for high-quality teachers to have and usethat we have left off our list? Can you point to research thatsupports your view?

2. What would be necessary at your campus to gain approval forimplementing teaching and learning tours? Where would youstart? Who could you count on to help you get the idea going?

iiit,fGu·

,

AvoidingEquityTraps andDevelopingEquitySkills

The path of least resistance and least trouble is a mental rutalready made. It requires troublesome work to undertakethe alternation of old beliefs.

This chapter explores the traps that prevent educators from beingsuccessful with all students. We call these "equity traps" and define

them as

patterns of thinking and behaviors that trap the possibilities forcreating equitable schools for children of color. In other words,they trap equity; they stop or hinder our ability to move towardequity in schooling. Furthermore, these traps are both indivi-dual and collective, often reinforced among administrators; and

teachers through formal and informal communication, assump-tions, and beliefs. (McKenzie & Scheurich, 2004, p. 603)

However, the individual and the collective school staff do not haveto fall into these traps. There are equity skills that can be developed thateither prevent one from falling into these equity traps or release onefrom these traps if indeed one falls into them. There are, moreover,strategies for avoiding these traps and developing equity skills. Thesestrategies, along with the equity traps and conversely the equity skills,will be discussed in this chapter. We begin with a discussion of thestudy that led us to identify equity traps. We then describe each equitytrap, the equity skills that prevent or release one from each trap, and thestrategies for developing these equity skills.

Equity traps were drawn from a study that one of the authors of thisbook (McKenzie, 2001) conducted for her dissertation research. At thetime of the study, she was a principal of an urban elementary schoolserving predominantly students of color and those whose families hadlow or nearly no income. The teaching faculty at the school waspredominantly white and female. Although there were some teacherswho were highly successful teaching all their students, there weremany who were not. Moreover, some of the teachers seemed to believethat they could not teach "these kids," referring to their students ofcolor and those living in low- or no-income homes. Knowing that herschool was similar to most urban schools in the United States-that is,most teachers are white, middle class females teaching students ofcolor and those whose family incomes are below middle class-McKenzie wanted to understand why white teachers were havingdifficulty teaching all their students. Specifically, she wanted tounderstand the perceptions of white teachers regarding their studentsof color and themselves as white educators.

In an attempt to understand these perceptions, she conducted a six-month-long qualitative study with six experienced, white teachers at aschool that was similar in student population to the school whereMcKenzie was principal. The results of this research produced find-ings that were framed as four equity traps: (1) A Deficit View,

(2) Racial Erasure, (3) Avoiding and Employing the Gaze, and(4) Paralogical Beliefs and Behaviors. Subsequently, four skills wereconceptualized to prevent individuals and entire school staffs fromfalling into equity traps. These four traps (and their matching skills)are explored in great detail in the next sections of this chapter.However, the terminology used to label them has evolved somewhatsince the original research project. Therefore, we've reframed them tomake them more useable for practitioners interested in strategies toaddress issues uncovered by equity audits.

The Trap

The first equity trap, seeing only deficits, draws from Valencia's(1997) work on deficit thinking. According to Valencia, the deficit-thinking model is

an endogenous theory-a theory that posits that the studentwho fails in school does so principally because of internaldeficits or deficiencies. Such deficiencies manifest, it isalleged, in limited intellectual abilities, linguistic shortcomings,lack of motivation to learn, and immoral behavior. (p. 2)

Thus, if a teacher or administrator has a deficit view, she or hemay see students as being genetically inferior-"they're just not verysmart"--Qr students and students' families are just not valuingeducation-"they just don't care about education"-or students asunmotivated and incapable of good behavior-"they just don't careabout learning and can't behave well enough to learn."

The Skill: Developing an Asset View

There are, however, many teachers and administrators who have anasset view of their students and their families (as we mentioned inChapter 8). These individuals see all their students as intellectuallycapable. They see their students and students' families as caring aboutand valuing education (Lopez, 2001). And they see the potential for allstudents to be motivated and engaged learners.

The Strategy

How, then, does one turn a deficit view into an asset view? Thisrequires a reframing of thinking about students and their families. Inthis reframing, one recognizes that students and their families havefunds of knowledge (for a complete discussion of this concept, seeMoll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992). These funds of knowledge arethe strategies, abilities, practices, and ideas that children bring to schoolfrom their homes and communities (Gonzalez et al., 1993). When onelearns to recognize and value these funds of knowledge as valuablequalities and skills, deficit thinking can be transformed into asset think-ing. However, for school faculty and staff to acknowledge and value thefunds of knowledge students bring with them to school, they must getto know their students and their students' families. Three tactics we andothers have used to accomplish this are neighborhood walks, oral his-tories, and three-way conferencing (for more information regardingthree-way conferencing, see Lam & Peake, 1997; Ricci, 2000). Here weprovide a little more detail on one of these tactics-neighborhoodwalks. (For a complete discussion of all these strategies and tactics wehave used to develop equity skills, see McKenzie & Scheurich, 2004.)Neighborhood walks have proven successful in getting school staffs toknow their students and their students' families and communities at adeeper level. We have found that going door-to-door to every student'shome to welcome students and their families to a new school year andalso to invite them to partner with the school in the education processestablishes positive rapport between the school and the home and com-munity. Moreover, this is the start of turning a deficit view into an assetview. From our experiences, once school staffs get to know studentsand their families through positive exchanges, it is much easier forthem to see the assets or funds of knowledge students and their familiespossess. Of course, it's not so simple.

Whereas neighborhood walks can initiate positive experiences,they need to be followed up with positive phone calls or notes home,personal invitations to school events, collaboration regarding schoolgoals and individual student's goals, timely communication that isclear and in the students' home language, and so on. In other words,there needs to be multiple and genuine efforts to partner with familiesand communities in the education of their children.

The Trap

The next equity trap is racial erasure. This concept comes from thework of bell hooks (1992). She defined racial erasure, which is oftenreferred to as colorblindness, as "the sentimental idea ... that racismwould cease to exist if everyone would just forget about race and justsee each other as human beings who are the same" (p. 12). One has toask why individuals would want to see each other as the same when itis our differences that add texture and make life more interesting. Thisquestion aside, though, the idea that we can forget about race and justsee each other as human beings seems to say that race is a bad thing,that one would have to overlook or get beyond someone's race to seethem as human beings-to see them as "the same" not "the other."

The Skill: Seeing and Respecting Race and Culture

To prevent getting trapped into erasing race, in other words color-blindness, or to get out of this trap, one has to see and respect race. Inother words, instead of trying to avoid seeing someone's difference, weshould work toward seeing someone's difference and respecting thatdifference. This requires learning about ourselves and learning aboutour conscious and unconscious beliefs. We may have to ask ourselves,"Why do I try to erase someone's race? What is it about seeing some-one's skin color that makes me feel uncomfortable? Do I mentally tryto avoid seeing the skin color of everyone or just people unlikemyself? If I'm white, do I try to avoid seeing another white person'sskin color, or do I not even think of white as a skin color, as race?"

The Strategy

One strategy we have used to help ourselves and others to becomemore racially and culturally aware and respectful is through learninggroups. These are usually focused around a book, but they do nothave to be. We and others have also used film; print sources, includingjournal articles, newspaper stories, and editorials; commercials fromvisual media; and art in varying forms. Some of our front-running col-leagues are using the virtual world to create spaces for learning groups

(Brunner, Hitchon, & Brown, 2002; Lee & Hoadley, 2006). A caution,though: whichever format one uses for learning groups, the establish-ment, organization, and process of these groups need to be thoughtful.We suggest (as we have in earlier chapters) taking a look at Singletonand Linton's (2006) book, Courageous Conversations About Race: AField Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools, for an example ofa waythese learning groups can be successfully structured.

EQUITY TRAP 3: RATIONALIZING BAD. BEHAVIOR AND UNSUCCESSFUL PRACTICES

The Trap

This trap addresses two issues-treating students badly and main-taining practices that are unsuccessful and limit student learning. Anexample of the first issue would be the teacher or administrator whocontends students must be dealt with harshly and punitively because itis the only behavior students understand or it is the only way to con-trol students. An example of the second issue would be the teacherwho will not incorporate classroom practices that allow students towork in collaborative groups (like science labs) or to get out of theirseats and move around the room or to use manipulatives or to engagein any practices that require the teacher to relinquish strict teacher con-trol. The notion here is that the only instructional arrangements thatcan work for some students are ones in which there are high levels ofteacher control. In other words, the rationalization for not incorporat-ing learning activities that would engage students is that the studentsjust can't handle it. In both of these examples, the adults can maintaintheir current thinking and practices because they excuse their behavioror practices and frame the problem as residing outside themselves. Inother words, the problem is not the way these adults think about ortreat students; the problem is seen as the students. Therefore, this ratio-nalizing of behavior and practices, this making of excuses, preventsreflection and the changing of beliefs and practices.

The Skill: Reflecting on Self

Self-reflection is critical for changing beliefs and practices (Vacc& Bright, 1999). When an individual shifts from externalizing andblaming others to internalizing and reflecting on one's own behavior,a space is created that can allow one to change beliefs and behaviors.

Self-reflection, however, is not something that occurs and then "onegets it." Self-reflection requires a nearly constant attention to thoughtsand how these thoughts are manifested in behaviors and practices.

The Strategy

One cannot force someone else into self-reflection. Ultimately, itis a personal choice. Therefore, here we will discuss briefly somestrategies we personally use to aid in our own self-reflection. The firstis journaling. Daily journaling allows us to see what we think. It iswriting our way to understanding. A second strategy is having a criti-cal friend. Indeed, the three authors of this book often serve as criticalfriends to each other. A critical friend (Costa, 1993) is one that asksthat tough question, which, to be answered, requires self-reflection. Athird strategy to promote self-reflection is videotaping. Videotapingour teaching or speaking to a group and then watching the tape allowsus to see and hear our beliefs and behaviors enacted. This is a power-ful, albeit sometimes painful strategy.

The Trap

This final trap addresses the normalizing (in a negative way) ofbeliefs, behaviors, and practices. This means exerting group pressureon people within a school so that negativity becomes the normal situ-ation for virtually all aspects of schooling. This is literally the oppositeof having a positive school climate. This is the trap that takes all theothers to scale. In other words, this is a collective trap that can ensnarlan entire school community. In this trap, there is a group within theschool community that can prevent others from freeing themselvesfrom the equity trap&and developing equity skills. This is usually donein unconscious ways. For example, if a group of teachers are talkingnegatively about a particular student or that student's family and oneof the teachers offers a counter view, the others in the group will normthe teacher into either tacitly accepting the negative view or just keep-ing silent and not pushing the positives.

This is done when one teacher says something and another agreesand then another, and when a counter opinion is offered, the group tellsthe individual who offered the counter opinion that the she or he "justdoesn't know how it really is around here" or "it's always been this way

and it's not going to change" or "you'll learn how things are here." Notonly is this norming done in regard to opinions about students andtheir families, it is done in response to new teaching initiatives andefforts to involve the community, just about anything that would dis-rupt the status quo.

The Skill: Creating Transparency

It is difficult for in an individual, especially a new or inexperi-enced one, to resist the norming of a group. Again, though, keep inmind those who are most instrumental in the norming process are usu-ally unaware of their participation in this process. So the skill to pre-vent or release an individual or whole school from this equity trap isto create transparency. Creating transparency means creating a schoolthat is so thoroughly collaborative that all beliefs, behaviors, and prac-tices are out in the open, are visible. Once made visible, deficit beliefs,inappropriate behaviors, and unsuccessful practices can be understood,addressed, and transformed.

The Strategy

The most successful strategy we have used to bring about trans-parency is through the teaching and learning tours described inChapter 10. Not only do these tours provide in-situ professional devel-opment to assist teaching in developing as reflective practitioners, thetours serve as opportunities for teachers to sit in small groups anddebrief. Our experience has been that during these debriefing sessionsor as a result of these sessions, teachers become aware of or see theirbeliefs and how these beliefs form their behavior and practices. Justthe other day in one of these sessions, we were discussing whichstudents get left out of instruction or placed out of instruction. Therewas a great deal of talk about African American males being left outor moved out. The discussion was around trying to understand behav-iors that seemed unruly to some of the teachers. However, one of usasked about the compliant student, in this case a Latina who wasalways quiet and respectful. This was an eye-opener. One teachingassistant, herself Latina, said, "Oh my gosh, I never thought about this.There is a student in our class right now who I assumed was learning,but maybe she's not. I'm going to check on her today and see."

Therefore, it was through this discussion that teacher assumptionsabout student learning behaviors became visible.

This chapter describes the traps that prevent educators from beingsuccessful with all students and the equity skills that preventindividuals and groups from falling into these traps or settingthemselves free from the traps. Moreover, strategies to develop theseequity skills are offered. This chapter concludes the discussion ofequity audits and of strategies for addressing issues revealed by theaudits. In the next chapter, Chapter 12, we provide concludingcomments and reflections for the entire book.

1. Do you see any of the equity traps described in this chapter asbeing present on your campus or in your district? Which one (ifany) is the largest? Are any of the skills and strategies outlinedhere for addressing these traps currently in place in your schoolor district?

2. If your school is not currently doing neighborhood walksroutinely, what could you do to get such an activity started?What steps would you need to take to make a plan for this typeactivity?